Years ago Karl Meninger’s book, Whatever Became of Sin? gave written expression to a widespread suspicion that the concept of “sin” was steadily evaporating from everyday life. If the question posed by Meninger’s book was apropos when he wrote it in 1973, it is even more appropriate today.

Man has always tried to minimize his wickedness, lessen sin’s offensiveness – even glamorize it – and do anything but call sin, sin. For example, since the word “embezzler” carries with it the connotation of deceitfulness and dishonesty, the contention of some would be that it should no longer be used to describe the misguided person who takes money by fraud. Thus the “embezzler” is now simply one who misappropriates funds. The gambler is an adventurous investor; the liar is only exploring the outer limits of free speech; and the homosexual has adopted an alternative lifestyle.

Within the last century as softer, gentler terms accepted as politically correct no longer sufficed to take the sharp edge off sin, sin began to be justified by the situational ethicists. Bishop A.T. Robinson’s book, Honest to God purported that situational ethics was the only ethic for the “man come of age.”

To the situational ethicist stealing is not wrong if the money is taken from someone who is wealthy and given to the needy and adultery is not necessarily wrong if it is engaged in by two people who are in love even though they may not be married. In situational ethics the person is always more important than some prescriptive principle or absolute truth.

It was inevitable that political correctness and situational ethics would lead to the kind of value system we seem to have in America today.

In the case of Lawrence and Garner v. the State of Texas that came before the Supreme Court in 2003 the justices ruled by a verdict of 6-3 that sodomy laws were unconstitutional. This high court ruling basically means that all sodomy laws in the U. S. are now unconstitutional and unenforceable when applied to non-consenting adults in private.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported, “In last year’s Lawrence sodomy case, U.S. Supreme Court Justices assured us that it had no implications for gay marriage. But scarcely had the ink dried than the Massachusetts high court was invoking Lawrence to mandate gay marriage.”

Gavin Newsome, mayor of San Francisco, also began issuing marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples as if to indicate that it was fit and proper to do so. Then even more recently the United States Senate couldn’t muster enough support to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment in their house of Congress.

At the present time the institution of marriage is at the forefront of the cultural war, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. In an effort to fire up his supporters in the 1992 race for the presidency, Pat Buchanan said, “There is a religious war going on in this country, a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself, for this is for the soul of America.”

Long ago God, through the prophet Isaiah, pronounced six woes upon Judah and Jerusalem. You can read about these “woes” in Isaiah 5. The fourth “woe” is particularly disturbing because it is so frighteningly characteristic of America today. Isaiah writes: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5: 20).

Have we lost our moral compass? It appears that we have. However, there is a solution. The gospel of Christ is the answer to the ills of our society, but we must never minimize the awfulness of sin, preach a gospel of cheap grace, compromise our convictions to accommodate a pagan society, dilute the absolute truths of God’s Word or adopt a consumerism mentality just to grow the church.

A church that is a mile wide and an inch deep spiritually will not significantly impact our secular culture, but a regenerated, revived church will become a mighty instrument in the hands of God with the supernatural ability to right an upside down world.